Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-10-14


to their colts in every instance, as many
of them have taken back to American
Star, having his color, marks, size and
poor feet and limbs. The sons of Ham,
bletonian from Star mares have good
size; in many instances they are larger
than was their sire; but, as has been
stated, many of their colts have the size
of their grandsire, American Star.
Though Hambletonian was kind, his
sire, Abdallah, was unsafe, wicked, such
kicker that he never could be driven in
harness. Messenger was cross; it is
stated that he killed one or two of his
grooms. 1t is understood American Star
was kind, though a very gamey horse I;
yet he must have had a wicked cross in
his pedigree, the same as Hambletonian
had, from the fact that many of the sons
of his daughters by Hambletonian were
wicked. They must have inherited a
wicked cross from American Star to have
caused it to come out so strong i'm the
sons of Hambletonian from Star mares.
1t is stated that Dexter would at times
drive Hiram Woodruff from his stall /;
Waikiki Chief was wicked Aberdeen very
unsafe at one time. Socrates has had to
be tied with several ropes or straps in
his halter; Sherman Hambletonian once
threw off his rider, Mr.. Kimball, then
seized him by the shoulder and tossed
him into the air; this he did number of
times; then he lay down on him and be-
gan biting him savagely, and would have
killed him if he had not been beaten off
by several men with large sticks or poles.
Mr.. Kimball had piece taken from his
shoulder and an arm and leg broken. 1t
can be seen how much was sacrificed
for speed in breeding from the Star
mares, and yet the sons of Hambletonian
from the Star mares are vastly inferior
to many of Hambletonian's sons that
were not from Star mares as to transmit
ting speed, as for instance George Wilkes,
Electioneer, Alexander's Abdallah, Hap
Ply Medium, Volunteer, Strathmore, Bel
mont and Harold.
1t is claimed that Mr.. Wallace at first
advised a thoroughbred cross in breeding
the trotter He has not for the last 20
years. He did claim that the most of the
speed Of the trotter came from Messen-
ger, and that Messenger was thorough
bred, that he was an exception in this re-
spect from other thoroughbreds and that
the only thoroughbred cross safe to have
in the trotter was the Messenger. He
now admits that Messenger was not thor
oughbred; that his grandsire, Engineer,
and great-grandsire, Sampson, did not
possess the six crosses of pure blood.
The fact that Messenger was not thor
oughbred may account for so many of
his descendants being fast trotters. Mr..
Wallace is still opposed to the thorough
bred blood in the trotter. When such
brilliant trotters as Maud 5. :Osa), the
queen of the turf; Jay-Eye-See (2:lO !;
Clingstone (2:lD; Lulu (2:l5); Lady
Thorne and others have thoroughbred
cross in their pedigrees, it looks as though
strong thoroughbred cross, third or
fourth remove, gives not only speed, but
game and endurance and also style and
finish to the trotter.
A good color is desirable and should
be bred for. 1t has been seen how prepo-
tent Rysdyk's Hambletonian was in
transmitting his color. The red color in
the Hartford cattle is very strong; n
HEREFORD bull will sire red calves from
any class of cows. The color is very
strong in certain breeds of horses. 1t is
with the Morgans, they being mostly
bays and chestnuts. With few excep-
tons, Mr.. Linsley says, the color black
is confined to the Black Hawk family
One writer, in speaking of Flying Nor
gan, argued that he could not have been
a strong-blooded horse in transmitting
his color from the fact that his daughter,
Lady Griswold, was gray. When told
that breeders consider the color gray
hard color to get over, he, to disprove it,
named the bay horses Mambrino and
Hambletonan, which were by the gray
horse Messenger. Now Hambetonian
did not transmit his color to his son, as
he took his color from his gray dam, the
MunsOn mare. OF the four that Harris
Hambletonan has credited to him in the
2 80 list, three are gray, and his two sons,
Vermont Hambletonian, or the Noble
Horse, and the Parish Horse, are gray
To know the weight of the writer's argu-
ment one must know what color the ma
iority of Messengers get were. This
will be shown. 1t is well to first under
stand that the color gray has been an OBJ
jectionable color with the Arabs; they
have avoided it or bred away from it as
much as they could. 1t has been the
same with the English in breeding the
thoroughbred. In this country the gray
color is not liked. But few gray horses
I,a